COQUILLE — On the opening night of the Sunset Conference basketball season, just before the new year, Coquille’s boys basketball team was demolished by league champion Cascade Christian.

It’s amazing even to the players how far the Red Devils have come from that game, which they trailed 61-15 entering the final quarter.

Coquille rallied in the second half of the league season to finish fifth — despite a pair of agonizing one-point losses in which the Red Devils gave up late leads — and beat Glide to earn a spot in the Class 3A playoffs.

Now the Red Devils are preparing for a first-round game at Sheridan on Friday.

“A month ago, would we have been happy to say we’re an OSAA (playoff) representative — absolutely,” said Coquille coach Dan Cumberland.

The Red Devils had just one full-time varsity player returning, junior Heston Altenbach, and the only other one who saw significant time last year, Joseph Savala, missed five weeks for violating a team rule.

The team followed the loss to Cascade Christian with two more and was sitting at the bottom of the league standings.

“I think the turnaround was the first Myrtle Point game,” Cumberland said. “That got us going.”

The Red Devils soundly beat the Bobcats, then lost games to playoff teams Bandon and Rogue River to fall to 1-5 in league play.

But then Coquille got a win over Glide, a relatively close loss to Cascade Christian — Coquille led after the first quarter and trailed just 23-20 at halftime — and back-to-back victories over Gold Beach and Reedsport.

The biggest difference was the effectiveness of a new press Cumberland put in that took advantage of the athleticism of his team, particularly sophomore Joe Harris and junior Ryan Dannels.

“I made a decision to go to pressure defense and we worked on it,” Cumberland said. “That’s the difference in the team.”

The press caused all kinds of problems in a late-season win over Bandon and provided the turning point in the playoff win at Glide, which came just three days after a one-point loss on the Wildcats’ home court.

Coquille trailed that playoff game by nine points at halftime, but scored the first 13 of the third quarter.

“A steal right off the bat got us going,” said senior Daniel Muntifering.

Nearly all the points in that run followed steals by the press.

Muntifering said you can tell when Coquille is playing well by the defense, which displays the team’s focus.

“Our energy level is just so high,” he said. “The last half of the season, our defense is where it is now.”

Muntifering and Savala are joined as seniors on the team by Brady Coady and Ryan Young, who, like Muntifering, spent last year primarily with the junior varsity team. Savala was called up to the varsity squad full-time about midway through last year.

Altenbach and Dannels are the team’s two juniors, with Harris and Rex Dixon sophomores. Tanner Howard and Cole Waddington are freshmen who played JV basketball and swung with the varsity most of the year, though Waddington joined the upper club full-time late in the season and has added a lot as a guard.

Altenbach, the team’s captain, saw potential from the start of the season, but was pleasantly surprised at just how much Coquille improved.

“I knew all along that the team had talent,” he said. “It was just putting it all together on the floor.”

Part of that was a return during the league season to the style of offense that made Coquille great earlier this decade, when the Red Devils went to the playoffs four straight years.

“We started to come together as a team instead of individuals on the court,” Altenbach said.

That meant everybody looking for open teammates, often leading to easy baskets from great passes.

Cumberland said a big improvement also came in rebounding, but pointed to the value of selfless basketball.

“The two stats I post are rebounds and assists,” he said. “Those are team statistics.”

Harris has been Coquille’s most consistent offensive threat with his great athleticism, and averages close to a double-double in points and rebounds. He twice this year nearly had a triple-double, with eight steals.

Aside from Harris, though, the top scorers have varied nearly every night, with Muntifering, Savala, Altenbach, Coady and Dannels all posting big scoring nights.

“We learned we really had to work well as a unit,” Cumberland said.

Now Coquille faces a huge challenge.

Sheridan was fifth in the final Class 3A coaches poll and has been among the top Class 3A teams all season, and includes two of the division’s top athletes — shooting guard Niko Rentsch, who had 37 points against Horizon Christian, and post Tre Hale-Edmerson.

The Spartans shared the regular-season title with Horizon Christian in the West Valley League and won the seeding game between the two teams. They enter the playoffs with a 24-4 record.

Coquille is entering the game with optimism, though.

“We need to get everything picture perfect — to take out all the bugs,” Altenbach said.

“Our defense needs to be where it was at Glide,” added Muntifering.

Friday’s game starts at 7 p.m. Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for students.